An example relating to a reservation system of a parking lot is disclosed in Patent Document 1. This reservation system comprises a reservation acceptance system and a parking lot usage management system, and is connected through a network each other.
Users of the parking lot have access to a reservation acceptance system by using a terminal unit connected to the network, and send positional information to the terminal unit together with reservation request information. The reservation acceptance system determines if the user is within a predetermined range near the parking lot, and if the number of vacant spaces of the parking lot is a predetermined number or more based on the received positional information. The reservation acceptance system accepts the reservation request from the user if the user is within the predetermined range from the parking lot and the number of the vacant spaces is the predetermined number or more.
In order to certainly offer parking spaces to the users with reservation in the parking lot, it is necessary to secure the parking spaces upon reservation. However, the reserved parking spaces are not available during a period from reservation to arrival of the user, and usage effect is reduced. Accordingly, the above reservation system becomes available when the user approaches the parking lot to a certain degree, and reduction in the usage effect is inhibited by shortening a period from reservation to arrival of the user.